In July, Niverville Town Council decided to join the Partnership of the Manitoba Capital Region. This partnership, which began in 1999, encourages communication and collaboration between Winnipeg and surrounding municipalities.

The most significant aspect of this partnership is the networking opportunities it creates between the municipalities, as well as directly with the City of Winnipeg. This open dialogue allows the Town of Niverville to learn from the successes and challenges of other municipalities in the region while working collaboratively to improve areas like tourism, environment and water quality, economic development, and transportation with other members within the capital region.

“Having a conduit to talk to the city of Winnipeg as well as with the other municipalities that, should there be things that Niverville needs to have agreements with in the future as things progress, those relationships can start to build now,” explains Mayor Myron Dyck.

Town Council was invited to sit in on the partnership’s June meeting to assess whether joining would be of benefit to the town. The cost is about $3,000 annually, but according to Dyck the benefits outweigh the fee.

“There are volume-buying opportunities,” says Dyck. “Let’s say your fire services need to buy fire department gear, for instance. Normally Niverville would place its own order, but if the capital region puts in an order, you can volume-buy, which is a cost savings to our residents.”

The partnership meets six times per year. Mayor Dyck has been appointed to represent Niverville at these meetings, the first being this coming September.